Even David Moyes doubted the wisdom of paying over-the-odds for Steven Pienaar in the summer. But the midfielder has once again proved to be an important player for Everton. Adam Bate examines why.
Monday 10 December 2012 16:25, UK
Adam Bate looks at the devastating combination of Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar at Everton.
When Everton paid Tottenham a reported £4.5million for 30-year-old midfielder Steven Pienaar in the summer, it appeared a strange bit of business given that the club had sold him to Spurs for a fraction of that fee the previous year. Even David Moyes admits he was uncomfortable with the arrangement. "I was worried about it second time around," said the Everton boss, quoted in the Daily Mail. "At Everton we have always tried to do good deals and tried to buy at the right age or certainly at the right price. We had to buy Steven back for more than we sold him and he was a year older... It just felt as if it wasn't lying well with me." But when it comes to Pienaar, Moyes realised he had to make an exception. "We knew when last season finished that we had to bring Steven Pienaar back to Everton, really at any cost," he added. And the South Africa international's success since returning to Goodison Park highlights the dangers of ascribing a fixed value to a player - Pienaar is worth more to Everton than he could ever be to Tottenham. The chief reason for that is his well-documented understanding with Leighton Baines down the Everton left flank. Toffees senior first team analyst Steve Brown is a numbers man but even he acknowledges that it did not require an in-depth look at the statistics to appreciate the merits of the signing. "You can look at combinations of players," Brown told the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference earlier this year. "A prime example is that we took back Steven Pienaar in the last minute of the transfer window in January. We could have probably supported that with some stats because we knew what Steven had given us previously. But you [only had to] look at the combination he had with Leighton Baines at left-back and how many chances that created for us and how positive their play was on the left-hand side."Premier League key passes 2012/13 | ||
Player Name | Team | Key passes |
Leighton Baines | Everton | 57 |
Steven Gerrard | Liverpool | 43 |
Santi Cazorla | Arsenal | 41 |
Steven Pienaar | Everton | 40 |